The present exemplary embodiments relate to searching in relational database management systems and, more particularly, relate to a method of searching in relational database management systems in which multiple columns may be searched at the same time.
A relational database is a collection of related data that is organized in related two dimensional tables of columns and rows wherein information may be derived by performing set operations on the tables, such as join, sort, merge, and so on.
More specifically, each database is a collection of related tables. Each table is a physical representation of an entity or object that is in a tabular format consisting of columns and rows. Columns are the fields of a record or the attributes of an entity. The rows contain the values or data instances; these are also called records or tuples.
Relationships exist both among the columns within a table and among the tables. These relationships take three logical forms: one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-many. Most relational databases are designed so there is only one value per cell (an intersection of a column and row); in this design pattern, there are only one-to-one relationships within a table. Each table is named according to the data it contains, such as people or addresses.
Between the actual database and the users of the system is a software layer known as the relational database management system (RDBMS). The RDBMS is responsible for handling all requests for access to the database, shielding the users from the details of any specific hardware implementation. The RDBMS is a control system that supports database features including, but not limited to, storing data, retrieving data and updating data.
The data stored in a relational database is typically accessed by way of a user-defined query that is constructed in a query language such as Structured Query Language (SQL). An SQL query is non-procedural in that it specifies the objective or desired result of the query in a language meaningful to a user but does not define the steps to be performed, or the order of the steps in order to accomplish the query.